Each song is a child I nourish and give my love to. But even if you have never written a song, your life is a song. How can it not be?

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

One thing that really appeals to me is this idea of music being a living thing that has an evolution that, in a way, enables the artist to sell a process rather than a piece of product.

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.

Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.

Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.

Critics are the men who have failed in literature and art.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

I think another thing is that we don't really want exclusivity. We accept that it is in the artist's interest to be on sale in every place where they sell music.

People ask me how I make music. I tell them I just step into it. It's like stepping into a river and joining the flow. Every moment in the river has its song.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art.

Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.